Mike Orlove
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In 1992, fresh out of the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a history degree, Orlove took an unpaid internship in the programming office of the Department of Cultural Affairs, which runs the Cultural Center. Three months later he was hired as a “programming associate.” Though the job also involved booking film, theater, dance, and lectures, an experience in his first year cemented his interest in presenting music: While organizing events to celebrate Black History Month, he set up a last-minute concert with South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. “The show was mobbed, probably one of the biggest concerts I’ve ever done in terms of audience size,” with about 1,000 people in attendance, he says. “He played for well over two hours, and I had the biggest rush. It was the coolest thing to see kids and adults, poor people and rich people, black people and white people, whatever, coming to the Cultural Center and all digging this music. It really blew me away.”
In part, Orlove says, this is to be expected. He knows that some of his favorite bookings will never appeal to the mainstream, but says the city has a responsibility to make sure the full spectrum of musical expression is presented. He says his work’s well supported from above–specifically by cultural commissioner Lois Weisberg–but with some prompting he admits that it could be better promoted. The Cultural Center puts on some 800 events great and small every year, and they all get pretty much equal gray-type treatment in the press releases. “Not everybody wants to go to the symphony or go to House of Blues,” he says. “There’s tons of stuff going on that gets very little attention and it needs to be given a boost.”
For further information on Cultural Center programs and schedules, call 312-744-6630.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Mike Orlove photo by Dan Machnik.
